Comments | nextian: whose stories are they?

nextian

whose stories are they?

Jan 21, 2009 17:04

This is a personal essay I have been trying to write for a very, very long time. It isn't sparked by one thing in particular, but it comes in response to, and accord with, things I've read by chopchica and miriam_heddy and roga and dafnap and abyssinia4077 and xiphias and kita0610 and ... yeah ( Read more... )

rl: yisroel

Comments 505

kita0610 January 22 2009, 05:46:03 UTC

You...wrote the post I wanted to write.

Only you did it a ton better. And with less cuss words.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

nextian January 22 2009, 05:52:31 UTC

The cuss words are only hiding until my parents have read it. XD

Thank you for reading, and let me go edit the post, because I've realized that I went to look up the numbers in your name to cite you at the top and totally left you out, so: yeah, it means a lot to me that you understand.

kita0610 January 22 2009, 05:57:30 UTC

I. Me? Really?

Ok, see, now I think I am going to cry. Because I just got told for my TONE in a post about Israel in someone else's LJ, and this is exactly what I needed right now and I am totally crying like a girl.

Ok then.

Uhm. Thank you again.

nextian January 22 2009, 06:00:11 UTC

The words that I left out about Israel and Palestine and people talking shit to Jews about the country we barely have as though they knew what they were talking about, those are entirely swearwords in about fifteen different languages. That is seriously, seriously bullshit.

♥ Anytime.

Thread 10

anonymous January 22 2009, 05:58:57 UTC

abyssinia4077 January 22 2009, 06:01:23 UTC

(also, maybe I'm glad I missed the inauguration because...HE QUOTED THE Sh'MA? REALLY?)

kita0610 January 22 2009, 06:02:42 UTC

He did. He totally fucking did.

anonymous January 22 2009, 06:13:20 UTC

Thread 41

ultranos_fic January 22 2009, 06:29:39 UTC

(abyssinia4077 showed me this.)

I...I have no words, because this was that beautiful. Thank you. I learned so much, and I am deeply saddened I did not know it before now.

Thank you.

nextian January 22 2009, 07:05:10 UTC

Thank you for reading, and for your comments. I appreciate it.

destro January 22 2009, 06:52:39 UTC

But by and large when you speak about the beating heart of my religion, the words that define me and my family and my friends and my people, you treat them as the dead message written by a primitive people.

Like those before me: thank you for this. Seriously. It's always something that bothered me, the idea that we aren't allowed to interact with a text that is meant to define every day of our lives; about being asked to reinvent the wheel when looking for guidance anywhere.

I never had the chance or time to study my faith like I should, but I grew up listening to my parents, like any good Israeli ex-pat, ex-socialists and for all intents and purposes, atheist, discuss the books down to the word, beginning to end, inside and out, weaving through Hebrew when it was just for adults, with little bits of English to keep me and my brother awake at the table. It fascinated me that for people who could be so disillusioned, and at times, actively faithless, that the act of discussing, picking apart a text, working off of a common dialectic ( ... )

nextian January 22 2009, 07:09:46 UTC

about being asked to reinvent the wheel when looking for guidance anywhere.

This. This.

That's always been my problem, explaining to friends how I could still consider myself Jewish without actively believing. I think I don't want to forget, out of stubbornness from growing up in a primarily Christian small town, or because of the desire to preserve a religion that encourages dialogue as much it tries to teach. Or maybe it's mere pettiness, because I want to make my family's history worthwhile, to not let those words in the margin fade away.

*Yes.* Thank you.

serafina20 January 24 2009, 07:17:35 UTC

That's always been my problem, explaining to friends how I could still consider myself Jewish without actively believing. I think I don't want to forget, out of stubbornness from growing up in a primarily Christian small town, or because of the desire to preserve a religion that encourages dialogue as much it tries to teach. Or maybe it's mere pettiness, because I want to make my family's history worthwhile, to not let those words in the margin fade away.

And this sums up my experience more perfectly than I could think to articulate.

(The comment has been removed)

nextian January 22 2009, 07:41:10 UTC

And then you get people being all "Oh the Abrahamic tradition" and then I punch them in the face! It is up there for me with "well there's been fighting in the Middle East for so long, you know" and "the monotheistic tradition of sin".

Thank you for reading.

eta: ugh, I meant in the sense of "that venn diagram doesn't mean what you think it does," not "i hate it when people include Islam," hopefully you got this the first time and I'm just paranoid, over and out.